Kieron Bowie scored his first goal for Scotland as Sebastien Pocognoli’s side won 2-0 away to North Macedonia in the Nations League, a result that gave the new head coach his first win.
The former Raith Rovers and Hibernian forward, now on loan at Sassuolo from Hellas Verona, struck with a whipped finish in Skopje, capping a performance in which no player on the pitch could match his output in front of goal.
It was a sharp turn in fortunes for the 24-year-old Fifer, who had watched Scotland’s summer from home. On 19 May, Steve Clarke assembled his squad for the World Cup and Bowie was overlooked, despite scoring for a Verona side heading for relegation from Serie A and despite a long-standing problem of Scotland strikers not firing regularly.
Given the loyalty Clarke showed to players who had served him well, the omission was not a huge surprise, and neither was Scotland’s struggle in the USA, where they managed just one goal, scored by John McGinn.
Bowie took the news as directly as it came. “I received a message from him saying that I’m not in the squad but these things happen and it’s just about how you bounce back from it to be honest,” he said. “I scored goals in a struggling Verona team and that was as much as I could do. I was happy with where I was at and I was happy with how I’d played. I just spent a lot of time at home with my family and then a little golf holiday to Portugal for a week and that was all I did.”
There was further frustration on Tuesday, when his first international start lasted only 13 minutes after Jack Hendry’s red card in the Hampden defeat to Switzerland. The picture looks very different now.
In Skopje, Pocognoli set up in a new 3-4-1-2 with Bowie starting up top alongside Oli McBurnie in an ultra-attacking line-up. Bowie finished the game with the most shots (seven), the most on target (four), the most shots in the box (five) and the most touches in the opposition box (11).
“You play all your life to represent a country and to score a goal is just an unbelievable feeling,” he said. “This manager’s come in and he’s put a lot of trust in me. I think the style that he wants to play definitely plays into my strengths. I think you’ve seen today a lot of times running them in behind and just showing strength against occupying defenders is one of the main things. It’s a process but I think everyone’s enjoying that process and it’s a bit of a change.”
The word “process” has been used repeatedly by the Scotland head coach and his players in recent days, and there is substance behind it. Pocognoli is trying to implement a radically different system to his predecessor, and a different mindset with it, while embedding a clutch of new players. It is early days for the Belgian and his group, but Bowie believes things are clicking and that the change offers him a chance to make his mark.
“It’s a lot longer international break,” he said. “We spend a lot more time together so it’s good for him to get his message across and his ideas. Also, we play more games so we have to train a little bit less of course. I think for me it’s a fresh start with a new coach and different ideas. He said to me ‘you don’t need to prove yourself, just go and do what I know you can do’ and I feel like I’m just doing that.”
Bowie, who made his Raith debut at 16, is also aware that impressions formed earlier in his career can linger. “I think people, obviously Scottish fans, have the same idea of how I was when I was at Hibs and that’s all they can remember,” he said. “But I feel like since I moved to Serie A, it’s a different league, different challenge and I’m getting more experience at a higher level. So, yeah, I feel like I’ve definitely kicked into another gear and I feel like I’m showing that.”